The campaign gained some notoriety for making $400, er, $500, well a bunch of money in less than a day. It’s barely even two days in and the Double Fine team has now passed $1 million with close to 30,000 backers (and likely many more by the time you read this).

The campaign is not without controversy as some people are complaining that Double Fine is not really “indie” and to make this much money from a typically indie crowd funding site is a bit uncouth.  (Read GamerAnx‘s post for a pointed rebuttal to the complaints).

Double Fine has had significant success including Psychonauts and console game Brutal legend. The Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter campaign offers the usual pledge levels but, if you kick in more than $15,000 (which they promote on their company web site, not on the Kickstarter site) and they start promising silliness like dinners with the president and devs. Pledge more than $50K and you get to be a character in the game.

What do you think: Is Double Fine’s insanely fast funding campaign good of bad for the game industry? How about for other indie developers and studios?

Pledge [Double Fine Adventure @ Kickstarter] Read [GamerAnx]

Product: Sway Single Beanbag Chair, Sway Couple Beanbag Chair
Company: Sumo
Price: $279 (Sway Couple Microsuede), $299 (Sway Couple – Corduroy)
Pros: Big, comfortable, fits two people, has back support and easy to clean.
Cons: Cover is not removable. A bit pricey for a college dorm but, if you can afford it, you just need to find the space.
Ratings: Two thumbs up; 90/100; A-; * * * * out of five.
Overall: A great beanbag chair that will work well in any game room and match nearly any decor.

Forget Sumo’s Sultan beanbag chair. It’s a good enough beanbag chair but, if you are looking for a comfy, over sized, beanbag-filled gaming chair that’s more like a structured “chair” than a sloppy bag, you can pretty much forget most of Sumo’s products save the Sway line.

All of the Sumo chairs have individual comfort profiles but the Sway Couple Beanbag Chair wins over them all for me for one simple reason: Stability.

Big Brown Chair(s)

I’ve now reviewed two Sumo chairs and they are both commonly referred to as the “Big Brown Chairs” by family and friends. It’s in part because of the color but mostly because these chairs are huge. Big, Really Big and Even Bigger should be the size names. They are also very memorable seats in terms of comfort.

The Sway, like all other Sumo chairs, has a bean bag core with a breathable lining that, after you unbox it, quadruples its footprint and takes on a more comfortable, beanbag-like (or maybe burnt marshmallow or giant meatball) appearance.

Each Sumo chair has a microsuede cover and the Sway’s is attached to the rest of the chair.This model does come with a small side pocket (or pouch) that is good for holding a few remotes or even a wide console controller. Notice in the photo below that a standard Wii wheel WiiMote attachment fits in the pocket. As in the entire attachment, with the WiiMote and it fits completely into the pocket (not just half way out as you see in the photo).

There are four available colors and the fit pretty much every decor: Khaki, Funky Brown, Pitch Black and Fiery Red. The microsuede is pretty easy to wash with a wet cloth although you can also get corduroy (I suggest the former). Unfortunately, it does not have the unzip-and-launder convenience of some of the other models being attached (the bottom does unzip to reveal the harder cotton fluff base). i suspect the design prevents the cover from being easily removed.

Shape is the main difference between each of the Sumo beanbag chairs and this is where the Sway Couple chair wins it all for me.

It’s Beany and It’s a Chair

Most beanbag chairs, although they claim to be “chairs,” are ultimately stools. They offer zero back support and aren’t much more structurally designed to do much more than keep in the bans. They are, really, just a big ol’ bag of beans, even if the beans are made of puffy plastic.

Here’s where the Sway Couple surpasses all other beanbag chairs: It is actually a chair. It has a back that allows you to comfortably sit up.

The Sway Couple, is as the “couple” portion of the name suggests, is also built for two adults. And two people do fit on it either close and cozy or with enough room for a polite separation. Granted, it’s not quite couch like, so it’s not a true love seat stand-in but it will suffice in a party pinch. It does sit a bit lower to the ground so you’ll have to bend your knees a bit to plant your feet flat on the floor.

For gamers, this works much better than Sumo’s Gamer beanbag chair thanks to the back support. It helps keeps you comfortably facing forward so you can see the screen while retaining all the plushy comfort of a high-end beanbag chair. The other beanbags chairs have the lack of structure that causes it to more quickly flatten and better resemble a pillow than a chair. (You can easily see this effect at any game expo where Sumo often scatters several for gamers to use in lounges or other waiting areas. You’ll notice they are all usually either lying down, face to the ceiling, or constantly flipping around to find ways to comfortably use their handheld device.)

Get or Gift, You Gotta Have One

By combining size, stability, comfort, attractive colors and washable microsuede covers, the Sway Couple is the creme de la creme of bean bag chairs. It’s the king seat, the majestic throne of what many considered the slouchiest of seats.

If you are looking for the ideal gaming chair for those who like soft seats and an actual back, Sumo’s Sway Couple is the best beanbag chair for the job. It’ll work in room at either end of the snazzy-to-slovenly spectrum.

Product Page [Sumo Sway Couple Beanbag Chair]

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Title: Red Crow Mysteries: Legion
Price: $9.99
System(s): *PC window, Mac
Release Date: November 17, 2011
Publisher (Developer): Big Fish Game (Cateira)
ESRB Rating: “Teen”
Pros: You can skip puzzles that are too hard and no penalties for clicking on wrong items. Dark and creepy atmosphere adds to the game’s ambiance.
Cons: Puzzles are sometimes overly difficult (and sometimes repeat), more an adventure than a hidden item game and the hints aren’t always helpful.
Overall Score: One Thumb Up one Sideways, 89 out of 100 B+ * * *  1/2 out of 5

You have a gift and that gift is a curse, one that has killed your mother and grandfather and now may be your undoing. An evil entity who calls himself Legion wants to use your gift to help take over the world but the last thing you would ever do is help him.

You need to use your keen senses of detection and observation to find the clues and stop Legion and avenge your family’s death.

The Hidden Truth

Red Crow Mysteries Legion is a combination adventure and hidden item game. The nameless main character’s gift is the ability to see things others cannot (which is rather convenient in a hidden item game). You use that gift to search different locations for items which you can use to solve puzzles and open locked doors.

Each location has an ultimate goal for you to accomplish. For example, you begin with small goals like “unlock the shed” or “find the statues” that lead to finding things that would allow you to fix and finally operate your vehicle. The tasks you need to accomplish are listed on a piece of paper at the bottom of the screen.

There are lots of puzzles to solve including sequence puzzles, brain teasers and even actual jigsaw puzzles. The game will give you hints on the puzzles and, if you find one too difficult,  you have the option to skip the puzzle and just get the item. The hints can also apply to the location of a hidden item or what you have to do next in the game if you are stuck.

Earned trophies range from simply solving a puzzle to solving lots of puzzles in a row without skipping any or using hints. You can view what each trophy is for by clicking on it when the box pops up. They really don’t do much except give you a reason to want to try to solve each puzzles, much like the achievements you get for playing Xbox and PS3 games. In other words it’s great for completionists.

Never Give in to Evil

As with most puzzle games the puzzles range from easy to hard. Some of the hard puzzles can be completed by mearly clicking on stuff until you figure it out; Others involve more patience and possible annoyance. Fortunately you can skip over all the puzzles as much as you want with your only penalty being that you get no trophy, oh and the fact that this is a game based on solving puzzles therefore skipping over all of them makes the game rather boring but whatever.

There is also no penalty for clicking on everything in site during the item find parts of the game which is nice because some items are very well hidden. At times you will need an item to help you find something or solve a puzzle, adding variety to the game. The hidden item part makes up about 35% of the game with the puzzle aspect taking up the rest. I say 35% because you are only required to find a few items each time and sometimes only one.

It’s really more of a puzzler than hidden-item games. Also some of the puzzles repeat themselves, sometimes subtly, sometimes exactly and often those you see again are not the puzzles you wanted to replay.

Sometimes the hints given in the game aren’t that helpful. They are most helpful when you are trying to find a hidden object or solve a puzzle but there are times when you are just trying to decide how to initiate a puzzle (like what items are needed to do so) but the hints only highlight the puzzle and do not give any further information.

I like that you travel around in this game and aren’t in one location the whole time. The change of scenery makes it feel more like an adventure game. Also, each small goal ultimately leads to accomplishing a bigger goal which makes the actions feel more fulfilling.

Creepy and Fun

I love hidden item games and, even though this wasn’t a full HI game, I still had fun with it and enjoyed the variety.

The game has a dark, creepy undertone and the puzzles are sometimes rather difficult so I wouldn’t recommend this game for anyone under 10.

Site [Bigfish Games]

Very likely due to restrictions placed on it by the National Football League, EA removed one of the most enjoyable parts of the game: late hits. The original allowed you to plaster opposing players after the whistle blew. The game didn’t have injuries, so there was no tangible reward from doing it. That wasn’t the point, however. Knocking the opponent out of bounds blew off steam if you were losing, or rubbed salt in the wound if you were winning.

Even worse, the time frame in between plays that would have allowed you to do late hits still exists. New players won’t notice. For those of us raised on the first NFL Blitz, the pregnant pause taunts our muscle memory. It makes me want to drag out an N64 and play that version, which I’m guessing is not the reaction EA was going for.

EA Sports takes a fair amount of bashing for its sports game efforts, and sometimes the publisher earns it. In this case, I’m sure their hands were tied by the “No Fun League.”  The game’s leadership has gotten so paranoid about injuries it’s on the verge of banning tackling with recent rule changes.

The arcade effort’s touchdown celebrations are now much more tame as well. I understand the NFL wants to maintain its professional image but Blitz is not supposed to be wired that way. It’s a world in which a player who’s doing well can quite literally catch on fire. It’s a world in which the San Francisco 49′ers can line up against a team of zombies. But, thanks to interference from the NFL marketing machine, it’s a world in which a player breakdancing is just too extreme to be tolerated.

NFL image police also ended EA’s NFL Street series, an arcadey take on football with aerial moves. The games were just coming into their own, but the “street football” concept was too edgy for the NFL.  It got sanitized into NFL Tour, a game so bland most that played it only did so for easy Xbox achievements. The league’s license has proven mandatory to sell a football sim, but it’s slowly choking the life out of arcade efforts. If Commissioner Roger Goodell is going to have final approval on tackle animations in Blitz, perhaps EA should revive Mutant League Football instead.

Read [Gamertell]

Title: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Price: $29.99
System(s): *Wii, Xbox 360 Kinect, DS
Release Date:November 15, 2011
Publisher (Developer): Majesco (Nintendo)
ESRB Rating: “EVERYONE+ 10” Mild Lyrics
Pros: Fun dancing game that’s great for kids and adults, lots of great classic hits from as far back as the 60’s, take a quiz to choose which character you can be, change your characters clothes and change people whenever you want.
Cons: Some dance moves are not clear and hard to pull off, the songs in the game are not the same songs that are in the movie, no current dance hits in the game.
Overall Score: One Thumb Up, One Sideways; 89 out of 100, B+; * * * ½ out of 5.

You haven’t seen dancing till you’ve seen the Alvin, Simon, Theodore and the lovely Chippettes kicking it and kick it they do to classic dance hits in the Chipwrecked video game.

Munk It Up

The Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked game is dancing game where your body is the controller. You have to match the dance moves of the different characters exactly in order to score points, like in other dancing games.

The game has 30 hit songs that are mainly classic hits “Beat it” and “Love Shack” and no Chipmunk game would be complete without “I Told the Witch Doctor.” You start out with only a few songs available and you unlock more as you play the story mode of the game. Since this is the Chipmunks, all the songs are sung in Chipmunk or Chipette voice.

When you first start the game, a short quiz pops up that asks you some personality questions and if you are a boy or girl to determine who you will play in the game. If you pay close attention you can tell who the question is describing. For example, if the answers are mainly food related it’s probably Theodore or Eleanor, so it’s easy to pick who you want or you can mix up your answers for a surprise player. If you don’t like who you end up with you can change it in the options menu when the game starts.

You play the game by holding the controller in one hand (or no handheld controller if you are playing the Kinect version) and mimicking the Chipmunks dance moves. The dance moves are also scrolling at the bottom of the screen so you can prepare yourself for the next step. Dance moves range from simple like swinging your arms around to more difficult ones that involve lots of different movements, it all depends on the difficultly of the song you choose. There is also a co-op mode for up to two players to dance at once.

As you play you earn stars which you can use to unlock trophies and buy new costumes for the characters. Also as you start mastering moves you gain “munk points” which allow you to do special moves that rack up your points. Moves are given a ranking from “miss” to “great” and obviously the higher the rank the more points. You get no points if you miss the move.

Groove is in the Chipmunk!

I was surprised that the game didn’t have any current hits because I would think that the young kids this game is geared towards would appreciate some songs like “Firework” or anything by Lady Gaga. Having said that, this does make the game gear toward a wider range of people though since adults would much more enjoy dancing to hits they grew up with and they are still fun and known by kids.

It’s also odd that a lot of the songs that were in the movie aren’t in the game since the game is named after the movie. The only tie-in to the movie is that they are dancing in different scenes from the movie and the storyline part of the game retells the movie. Otherwise, it’s just a dancing game.

The quiz in the beginning to decide on who you would play is a nice touch. It asks questions that all have an answer that could be brainy, adventurous, or shy (and hungry) and then there is a forth option that is pretty generic which I would think would lean towards Dave if he were a playable character. I tried to pick different types of answers to each question so I wouldn’t know which character I got and I ended up with Jeanette. I also like that you can change the character in the menu screen whenever you want without it affecting the gameplay or forcing you to start all over.

Some of the dance moves are hard to pull off, meaning that you seem to be performing it just fine but the game reads it as you are messing up. There is a short tutorial that shows you how to play but not one that gives you tips on executing moves. The real only way to perfect moves is to keep trying them.

Everything is Better with a Rodent!

Overall I liked the game and it’s definitely a good workout. It’s a fun party game for kids and adults might find themselves getting up and dancing as well.

If you or your children are Munk fan’s you might want to grab this cute dancing game. Just don’t expect to dance to your favorite songs from the movie.

Site [Majesco Entertainment]

The start of CES 2012 is a few days away. This is an exciting time for tech companies and media to come together to discover what will be the big trends for the year. There are going to be ultrabooks, smartphones, tablets, cameras and various accessories covering every free space in the Las Vegas Convention Center and nearby hotels. That’s all well and good, but what can gamers expect from this show? 

Gaming doesn’t have a particularly large presence at CES. There are going to be plenty of gaming related products there, but it’s nothing like E3 or the Tokyo Game Show. Sony and Microsoft are going to have sections to try out games and accessories (Nintendo will be around too), and we’ll be keeping you up to speed on how well they perform. However, the real treat for gamers from CES won’t be game announcements or release dates. We are going to benefit the most from emerging technology.

The devices we own for gaming are capable of much more than what’s advertised on the boxes they ship in. If the speakers on your gaming device are too weak and tinny, there may be a new set of wireless speakers made just for you. Tired of awful virtual controls? There may be an affordable Bluetooth accessory with your name on it. Is the screen on your phone too small? There may a gadget to beam it onto any surface you want.

Those are just some accessory solutions. What about technology that will evolve gaming such as eye tracking, head tracking and touch controls that don’t require actual screens? These things will have a presence at CES. We can even examine the technology that will be used in future gaming consoles. CES is the stage where technology such as the next version of the Unreal Engine peeks out for a demo or two.

Even if something isn’t explicitly made for gamers, that doesn’t mean we won’t co-opt it at some point in time. Just look at the iPhone.

Don’t think of CES as not being a show for gamers. CES helps to determine what gaming will be like in the long run, not just the next year.

Gameloft put Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation on sale for $0.99 Monday. Just by reading the game’s title, it’s obvious Gameloft is trying to make Modern Combat successful by associating it with Modern Warfare 3. Gameloft has been using this method for a while. Gameloft used the success of StarCraft 2, Uncharted, World of Warcraft and more to push its games on mobile platforms that don’t see official ports of the aforementioned franchises. Despite any animosity one might have for Gameloft for being unoriginal, some of its ripoffs are well done. 

I downloaded Modern Combat 3 just to see how competent it is. After downloading nearly a gigabyte of extra data, I was staring at the game’s main menu (which is the image for this post). The story is as unoriginal as you’d imagine. The United States has been invaded by a trio of hostile nations and it’s up to the guy we’re controlling to save the country. Does that sound familiar? Of course it does.

I didn’t expect Modern Combat 3 to keep me engaged in any sort of story. That kind of immersion is usually lost on mobile games. I wanted to see how Modern Combat 3 handled first-person shooting when controlled on a touchscreen. I also wanted to see if Gameloft paid attention to graphical details. To my surprise, Gameloft did a nice job.

Modern Combat 3 looks really good on my HTC Sensation. It doesn’t have Infinity Blade quality visuals, but it’s still impressive. I can see why Modern Combat 3 needed all that extra SD card space.

The shooting is also competent for a game with no physical buttons. There’s no way to apply the same twitch reactions on a phone as you would with a real controller. To remedy this, Modern Combat 3 quickly snaps to nearby enemies whenever you aim down the sights of your weapon. So far, this mechanic has made the game pretty easy on normal difficulty.

The faults I’ve come across are typical of smartphone and tablet games that try to mimic console controls. Without physical buttons, it’s difficult to know what you’re pressing. I’ve been in situations where I meant to turn the camera, but ended up firing off a few rounds instead. The virtual button that controls sprinting is also awkwardly positioned near the center of the screen.

I have yet to try multiplayer, but I’m sure the limited controls will play a factor there as well.

Its stigma of a ripoff aside, Modern Combat 3 is the finest shooter I’ve played on Android. To me, Gameloft is sort of like Activision. We may not like how it handles business from time to time, but it puts out some fine games.

Download Link [Android Market]

Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots was finally released for Android today after it was delayed in November. It’s free in the Amazon Appstore, but the price will increase to $0.99 on Wednesday. $0.99 isn’t much money, but you may be wondering if Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots is different enough from the original Fruit Ninja to warrant a purchase. Allow me to tell you what Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots is, and what it isn’t.

What It Is

1) A Cash Grab – Make no mistake, there would be no Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots if it weren’t for the movie. Halfbrick and DreamWorks Animation were in a mutually beneficial situation with this game. Puss in Boots needed a marketing push, Fruit Ninja is one of the most popular games on iOS and Android and it’s not too far-fetched for the two worlds to come together. Fruit Ninja involves slicing fruit with swords and Puss in Boots carries a sword. The rest writes itself.

2) A Time Sink – Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots has all the familiar trappings of the original game. There are different swords and backgrounds to unlock that will have you constantly coming back for more. You’ll be surprised how fiercely you’ll pursue a single objective just to see what effect a new sword has. This game is a completionist’s best friend (or worst enemy).

3) Really Fun - Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots doesn’t stray from the classic Fruit Ninja formula, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s simple, colorful and a fun way to test your reflexes.

What It’s Not

1)  The Exact Same Game - The biggest feature that sets Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots apart from Fruit Ninja is the Bandito mode. This mode still has you slicing fruit, but the objectives are different for each round. Challenges involve slicing a particular type of fruit within a short period of time, but the obstacles surrounding the fruit vary from stage to stage.

2) Half a Game – Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots has 12 weapons and backgrounds compared to 13 in the original Fruit Ninja. The Bandito mode also doesn’t make me long for the Arcade and Zen mode in Fruit Ninja. There’s plenty to keep you occupied in Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots.

3) A Waste of Money – In conclusion, Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots is a win. It’s what you’d expect, but it’s more than just Fruit Ninja with Puss in Boots sound bytes.

Download [Amazon Appstore]

I purchased The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the day it came out. I picked it up for PS3, even though I’m well aware of Bethesda’s tendency to make PS3 ports inferior to that of the Xbox 360. I did this because frankly, I have no idea how much life my Xbox 360 has left in it. It’s an old 20GB model that has red-ringed once already. Even though it shows no sign of breaking down, I’m always wary of putting too much stress on it. Days after Skyrim‘s release, the reports of bugs and glitches started to arrive. I began to fear the worse for this game just as The Blades fear the return of Alduin.

At first, it seemed like the Xbox 360 got the short end of the stick. The texture glitch was a common problem, and some comparison videos gave a slight edge to the PS3. This turned out to be a facade. While the texture glitch could be avoided, PS3 players could not escape the framerate issues that came baked into Skyrim. What’s worse is that Skyrim‘s worst PS3 bug is caused by playing it too much.

As widespread as this problem is, I have somehow managed to mostly avoid it. Skyrim is totally playable to me after 70 hours and a save file that’s hovering around 10MB. Based on everything I’ve read, Skyrim should be at its worst right now. I didn’t do anything special either. I never deleted any data, autosaves are enabled and the latest patch is installed.

I have experienced some bad technical moments though. I’ve listed them below.

Instances of PS3 Freezes

• Once on a random loading screen
• Twice during final Stormcloak battle in Windhelm

Instances of Bad Frame Rate

• Whiterun is always a little laggy in upon entering. After everything loads, there is very little lag.
• A raid on a Stormcloak fort caused the worst lag I’ve seen on any PS3 game to date. This was probably due to the amount of activity going on at once. It balanced itself out after about a minute.

Other than what I’ve mentioned, Skyrim has been a totally competent experience for me. Am I just lucky? Maybe. Am I Dragonborn? We’ll find out eventually. All we can really know for sure is Bethesda will resume fixing Skyrim after the conclusion of the holiday season.

Site [Skyrim]

Title: Jurassic Park: The Game
Price: $29.99
System(s): *Windows, Mac, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS
Release Date: November 16, 2011
Publisher (Developer): Telltale
ESRB Rating: “TEEN”  for mild violence.
Pros: New take on the Jurassic Park story with new characters, new reaction time experience that’s different from other Telltale games, use the keyboard or a joystick to enjoy the game, each sequence is scored by a bronze to gold system so you can keep track of what you are doing well and not.
Cons: Reaction times can be hard and a distraction when you want to see the action, Nima is hard to understand at times even though she is a main character.
Overall Score: One Thumb Up one Sideways 84 out of 100 B 3 stars out of five

All you have to do is break into a zoo and collect an innocent bottle of shaving cream. Sounds easy enough, right?

The only problem is the zoo is really full of dinosaurs and the shaving cream really contains dino embryos. Hope their paying you well!

Jurassic Park is Frightening in the Dark!

Jurassic Park: The Game takes place sort of in the middle of the events of the first movie where Nedry (Wayne Knight in the movie) almost got away with the embryos (spoiler for the movie, he was killed by a Dilophosaurus.) Having never returned to the ship after his theft, his two team mates are now sent into the park to find them. One knows well what Jurassic Park is and the other, Nima, doesn’t have a clue till she gets inside.

The rest of the game plays out right after Nedry shuts down the park to escape and takes on a whole different route from the movie. I guess the game is implying that there were more people in the park then the movie mentioned.

Jurassic Park has a whole new set of characters with the exception of Nedry who is already dead when you find him. You play as a couple different people; Nima one of the thieves, Gerry the parks chief vet, and as his daughter Jess. The two eventually find Nima who was poisoned by a dino and now must work together to heal her and escape the now dangerous park via a evacuation ship that is waiting for them.

The game play is different then most Telltale adventure games. Rather than the point-and-click style, this one is more of a reaction time game. Throughout the game you have to hit different directions on the arrow keys (or joystick) in sequence to avoid obstacles like getting attacked by a dino or even just to move a log out of you way. You have to do each sequence in a timely fashion or you will either have to start the whole sequence over in less severe situations, or be killed in more severe ones. At times messing up the sequence can cause humorous results so you might want to flub them once in awhile. There are also times when you need to pick the correct dialogue or people won’t want to listen to you which is played out the same way.

There are also times when you can explore the areas to solve the puzzles. During these times you will be given several different perspectives which will be shown in boxes you can click on. Each box takes you to a different spot in the area you can explore, so basically rather than walking to the spot you just click the box to jump there. You can do the perspectives in any order but some need to be done first before you can proceed.

Each time you finish a puzzle or action sequence you are ranked from bronze to silver depending on how well you completed it and if you messed up or died at all during the sequence. You are shown your scores at the end, so if you ever play again you can see what you need to work on.

Dino’s and Dames

I am not a huge fan of reaction time adventure games. For one thing you miss a lot of the action when you are busy trying to hit the buttons in sequence to avoid getting mauled by a T-Rex. Also, it can be nerve-racking to have to repeat a whole sequence over again when you mess up.

However it is supplemented well with the explore options. Also not all of the sequences involve you dying if you mess up, and like I said some mess ups are funny such as when you are suppose to speak to Nima by trying to create a sentence in Spanish. Messing up means creating a comical sentence about yogurt needing a pencil.

Also, if you happen to get killed in the game you start off again from the last checkpoint which is usually close to where you died, and knowing the sequence now means you will probably survive better. The game keeps track of how many times you died and adds that to your overall score in the game.

I like that you can use a joystick to play this game as well as the keyboard and mouse. It’s a lot easier on the wrists then using the keyboard plus you can sit back and relax a bit rather than hovering over the keys. You need a fairly updated gaming joystick as it won’t recognize others ones like my 8 year old gaming stick.

The voice acting is pretty good except for Nima. Her thick accent can be a bit hard to hear at times and when she starts mumbling in Spanish you can just forget it. It is subtitled when she starts speaking in Spanish, but otherwise you just have to hope what she says isn’t important. There really isn’t any music in this game, just tense and exciting sound effects and some tension music during the action scenes.

I also like that they picked brand new characters to be in this game rather than having to run around as that obnoxious girl and her brother from the movie. Adding new characters gives the game a unique experience and also doesn’t make the game too obvious.

Escape is Dire

All in all I liked the game. Though some of the action timed sequences where hard it was supplemented nicely with the exploration areas and a fun storyline. Also it was a new experience from the same ole point and click.

If reaction time games aren’t your thing then you might not like this title because that’s the basic premise of the game.

Site [Telltale]